Felix M. Usis Jr.

February 15, 2014

He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, Dec. 12, 1923. His first years were in Leetonia. His parents moved to California in 1929 where he received his initial schooling and entered the University of California at Berkeley.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps. He was commissioned as a pilot and married his childhood sweetheart, all in the week before his 20th birthday. He fought in the European Theater. At the conclusion of the war, he returned to Leetonia, Ohio and he and his wife attended Mount Union College in Alliance for a year. Since Mount Union did not provide the education that he desired, they returned to the University of California.

Shortly after returning to the university, he accepted a commission in the newly established US Air Force. He retired in 1967 after 25 years of active duty in the US as well as in Iceland, Scotland and the Philippines. In the Philippines, he commanded what was reputed to be the largest squadron in the USAF, 3,400 men, rebuilding aircraft and engines at Clark Air Base and providing in country repairs to US aircraft in Vietnam and the surrounding countries.

On retiring from the US Air Force, he returned to Leetonia where he assisted his father in managing McKeefrey Farm, which he continued to do until he died.

He was a member of the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Salem. He was on the Leetonia Library Board and on the Salem Community Hospital Board.

Enjoying travel, he and his wife returned to Europe many times as well as traveling to Egypt and other parts of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Louise (Daily), their two sons, Felix III and John; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.